Going Back
by Mystique
Summary: Although they have joined the Force, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan still have unfinished business. - slash implications


Warning: Contains suggestions of a loving, non-platonic relationship between two men, but no actual sex. Please move on if this is not your kinda scene.  
  
  
Going Back  
==========  
  
  
"We should go back."  
  
"Hmmm?"  
  
"We ought to go back, Qui-Gon."  
  
"You want to, my love?"  
  
"I feel we are needed, Master. We must help."  
  
"Ah. You have ever taken your duty seriously, my Padawan."  
  
"As have you, my Master. And then there is us. Master." Obi-Wan nestled into his lover's comforting presence. "We are who we were. Here you will always be my wise and powerful Master. And I will always be your young and obedient Padawan."  
  
"Our past determines our reality," Qui-Gon agreed wryly. There was a thoughtful pause as he considered this. "We would give up much."  
  
"Yes. It's pleasant here with you in this place. But I want to go back. To start again as equals. I want the chance..."  
  
"...we never had." His lover finished his thought for him. Flickering between them were the memories of desire, and joy, and sweat-slicked bodies shared with lovers in a flare of fire and pleasure, but never, oh, never with each other.  
  
"You understand then?" Obi-Wan's relief was palpable.  
  
"Yes, my love."  
  
"You've been here longer than I. It was so long, such a long time before we could be together, and I wasn't sure if you would want to wait again..." Obi-Wan's thoughts trailed off.  
  
"Time is relative. I waited for you for a lifetime, and yet it passed in the blink of an eye. "  
  
"Master." There was a soft sigh, felt rather than heard. "I would wait for you for eternity, and an eternity again, knowing it would be worth it to find you once more."  
  
Their thoughts blended. Possibilities and fears, the risks they would face, all were examined. It may have taken a lifetime or only the blink of an eye but, once the mutual decision was made, they needed no more discussion, no careful pondering, once all avenues leading to understanding were laid bare.   
  
"Then it is agreed. We go together, and we will become... together."  
  
"Together, then."  
  
"Yes, Master." The thought came with a touch of the old dry humour.  
  
"Master no more." Qui-Gon also seemed amused. "Not once we go back. But we will find each other, and this time, we will not be separated."  
  
"Yes," and then for the last time, "Master."  
  
  
************  
  
they fell  
  
spiralling down, slowly at first, stars whirling around them like snowflakes   
  
- we are together, my love, always -  
  
suns flickering past, they gained momentum now as time stretched out ungentle fingers and touched them  
  
they fell  
  
time and space enfolding them. They fell together, through time and into time, tumbling  
  
- we will be together my love -  
  
and now the molecules of space tore at them, finally gaining a purchase on their bodies, buffeting them until their contact became tenuous, thin   
  
- together -  
  
- we will find -  
  
- love -  
  
more distantly now, but on a parallel course as they fell, finally and irrevocably, into embracing warmth and a forgetfulness of sorts and then pain and blood, and more love   
  
- love -  
  
************  
  
Yellow-bright sunshine, refracted through greens. The wind stirs the trees, rustling the leaves and the high voices of children float on the breeze.   
  
"Obi-Wan Kenobi would have kicked Luke Skywalker's butt!"  
  
"Not a chance! Skywalker was far more powerful!" There was an emphatic shake of red-gold hair.  
  
"Not by that much, and Kenobi had all that old-style training. He was a Master!"  
  
"He was ancient..."   
  
The taller boy snorted. "Master Skywalker is pretty ancient."   
  
Both boys giggled but the slight redhead was not to be side-tracked. "He's an old guy now, but he's young in all the holos. He was a great hero of the Rebellion."  
  
"And Obi-Wan Kenobi was a hero of the Old Republic! He was in the Clone Wars and everything!" The boy pushed his straight brown hair back out of his eyes and glared at his companion. Then he sighed. "I wish I'd been around back then, Bail. It must have been so exciting! All those space battles, being a Jedi Knight and fighting the evil Emperor!"  
  
Bail's face grew serious, intent, his forhead creasing as he searched his friend's dark blue eyes. "But Kwiron, Obi-Wan Kenobi got beaten. Betrayed and defeated. And it was pretty brutal, what happenned back then."   
  
"I don't care! Obi-Wan Kenobi was the best!" The boy glared. "He's my absolute favouritest hero."  
  
"What about his master?" Bail said, softly.  
  
"Yoda?"  
  
"No, Qui-Gon Jinn. You remember the story of the First Battle of Naboo? Qui-Gon Jinn was tall and strong, and as fierce as a Togorian. He fought the Sith and died to save Kenobi, so that Kenobi could Safeguard the Future. He was a really great hero." The red-headed boy's eyes were shining now. He grinned and stuck out his tongue. "I bet Qui-Gon Jinn could have kicked Ben Kenobi's butt!"  
  
"No way." The tall boy scowled, but his protest was made without any animosity. "Bail Okenba, you talk such rubbish sometimes."  
  
"And you're a pile of poodoo, Chun."  
  
"I could kick your butt!"  
  
"Prove it, beanstalk!"  
  
"Make me!"  
  
Laughing, the two boys wrestled, the bigger boy's strength and long reach balanced by the other's quickness and agility, until both subsided, gasping and giggling in an amicable truce.  
  
After a moment Bail sat up, fumbling in his utility belt.   
  
"Wait," he said. "I have something for you."  
  
He pressed something small and hard into Kwiron's palm. Kwiron looked down at it uncomprehendingly.   
  
"What's this?" he said.  
  
"It's a gift." Bail slowly closed each one of Kwiron's fingers over the object. "Please. I've been keeping it for you. I wanted you to have it."  
  
"It's... a stone, Bail."  
  
"Uhuh. It's important, though. Master Skywalker gave it to me when I first arrived here at the Academy. He said I reminded him of some-one."  
  
"Probably Jabba the Hutt!"  
  
"Well, I think you ought to have it." The smaller boy shook his head. "I know it's meant to come to you, somehow."  
  
"Yeah, well. It's quite pretty, I suppose." The tall boy held the stone up to the light and examined it briefly. He grinned and then shoved the stone carefully in a pocket with the rest of his assorted treasures. "Maybe I'll use it as a meditation focus someday."  
  
"You do that." The red headed-boy laughed, and then with a graceful economy of movement, he stood. "It's nearly dinner time."  
  
He grinned again. "Race you to the refectory! Don't make me wait for you, Chun!" he yelled, and was off.  
  
Kwiron Chun whooped, and, whirling his arms and yelling, he charged after his friend.  



End file.
